A common complaint of many hard working people is that they don’t have enough free time to devote to a fitness regimen. With careers, school and family it can seem like there is not enough time in the day for this extremely important part of life. However, it is so important to add activity into your life for you can sneak fitness into your life in many ways. Read on for some tactics.

Walk Or Bike To Work

This is a super easy way to get in the recommended amount of daily exercise (depending on the distance you live from your job) and is an especially great idea if you have a career that requires you to be seated all day. Taking in the fresh air and stretching your legs before diving into the daily grind is a great way to improve your work-life balance while you fight a sedentary lifestyle. This also gives you time to think, be outdoors, and escape from the constant input of daily life. If you make it a habit you can observe seasonal changes and enjoy the great outdoors despite being trapped in an office all day. Sitting is the new smoking, and if you have a job where you are sitting 9-5, you especially need to be doing some kind of activity during or outside of work. The only requirement for this is some comfortable walking shoes and clothing that is not difficult to walk in. If your job has a strict dress-code, you can always pack your work clothes and change into them once you are at work. You can also get off at an earlier bus stop or park farther away from work to get in more walking time.

Wake Up An Hour Earlier

Rising an hour earlier buys you the time you need to get an actual workout into your day. Many gyms have boot-camp and other fitness classes at dawn, or you can work out at home or do some outdoor exercise. If you feel like you will be too tired make the effort to get to bed earlier, and have your fitness clothing and shoes laid out the night before to motivate you when you wake up. It may seem difficult, but waking up an hour early is worth it to add years to your lifespan by including fitness in your life. This eliminates the stress of trying to find a time to work out, by the time the rest of the world is waking up, you will have checked that off your list which makes you feel good about yourself and eliminates the stress of taking care of that obligation after a long day’s work.

Try Working Fitness Into Your Lunch Break

Most employers give you a lunch break for a reason, it is a time to reset your energy and take some much-needed self time so that you don’t burn out by the end of the day. You could use this as a time to sit even more, or you could do the smart thing and use this time to get away from the screen, do some exercises or get in some walking. You could walk to a cafe for lunch or, if you stay in the office, could use the time to do some calisthenics. Even just doing some squats and lunges will help your muscles from atrophying. You might be able to sit on a stability ball while you work to strengthen your core, and you can keep small pieces of exercise equipment like dumbbells at your work area. If you take care of these fitness basics at work you will feel more relaxed about the kind of exercise you do outside of work like canoeing or dance class.

Make Time With Loved Ones Active

This is a major life-hack that adds fitness into your life. If you take all the sitting time you do with loved ones and dates going to dinners, seeing movies and having down time, and turned those into walking, hiking, or other workout dates, it will probably vastly increase your fitness over the course of time. You could take your loved one to a fitness class. Take your grandma to Zumba, your sister to Yoga, and go for a walk in the park with your significant other instead of just watching the tube or eating food. Invite your girlfriends to a game of beach volleyball instead of hitting the club for drinks. You will be strengthening your relationships by doing activities that make you and your people feel better about themselves while your strengthen your bodies!

These are just a few ways to hack into a sedentary lifestyle. Even if you are not sedentary there is always room for more fitness in life. Tiny changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or doing crunches while watching TV, all of these small tweaks can add up to great fitness results.